Protozoid Slimer
The Protozoid Slimer (or just called the Slimer) is an enemy in Duke Nukem 3D, and is often seen along with Protozoid Slimer Eggs from which they hatch. The two are first encountered in the second level of Lunar Apocalypse, Incubator. Description (Protozoid Slimer) The Protozoid Slimer is little more than a green blob with a number of small tendrils around the sides. On the bottom of the Protozoid Slimer is a large mouth lined with jagged teeth. It is smaller than nearly every other enemy in the game (except for the Turret). Protozoid Slimers' exact function in alien hierarchy is unknown, though it seems they produce the green biomass of alien hives, and could cover with it both structures and captured women. It is a nasty little creature. It may not seem very menacing from a distance, and indeed it isn't, but when it has latched itself to your head and is biting your face off, you'll think differently. These soft puddles of green goo are very stretchy, and often swarm in great numbers and attack their enemy without warning by dropping onto them from the ceiling. According to the manual, protozoid slimers attack by sucking out Duke's brain through his nose. Slimers will also eat other alien troops, especially if they are coming after you and the alien is between you and the slimer. They will even eat Protector Drones, one of the most powerful aliens, and consume them in a single bite. However, they cannot eat the level bosses. Description (Egg) Protozoid Slimers hatch from protozoid slimer eggs (as the name suggests). The Egg technically counts as an enemy, but has no function other than to incubate a vicious protozoid slimer. The Protozoid Slimer Egg is a large oval egg which contains the Protozoid Slimer. It is grey in color and stands upright, and is probably kept upright by what appears to be orange fungus or mold around its base. When it hatches, only the top half of the Egg is broken. It appears to be significantly larger than a protozoid slimer. Combat analysis Protozoid Slimer The Protozoid Slimer is slow-moving, and shuffles across the ground directly towards its foe. Sometimes it will stretch its immensely flexible body and attach itself to the ceiling, where it will crawl along as normal, or vice versa. The distance from the floor to the ceiling doesn't matter to the Protozoid Slimer - it can stretch any distance. Since the ceiling of a room is often darkened or high up, it makes a perfect place to creep around before dropping straight down on the target. The Protozoid Slimer can even crawl along underneath the surface of water. Despite their mobility, however, they cannot crawl along walls (likely due to a limitation of the Build engine). The Protozoid Slimer only has one attack method, and that is a point-blank assault of its victim's face with its teeth. Once it gets close enough to its foe, it will jump and latch itself to their face, blocking almost their entire field of view and biting at their face at the same time. While it is attached to a person's face, it is very unwise for that person to fire an explosive weapon at the Protozoid Slimer. This is because the explosion will occur where the Protozoid Slimer is, which is on the enemy, and thus cause significant or often fatal damage to that person. The Protozoid Slimer is extremely weak, and can be killed with one shot of any weapon (even the Shrinker). The best weapon to use is the Mighty Foot, since it doesn't waste any ammo, and a quick kick will defeat the Protozoid Slimer just as easily as any gun. A quick kick will also allow the player to use their regular weapon without having to switch just to deal with the Protozoid Slimer. The Protozoid Slimer will attack any weaker being close to it. That is, it will attack and "consume" Assault Troopers, Assault Captains, Pig Cops, Enforcers and Protector Drones. It will do nothing to any other enemy, and it will not purposely go for any of those enemies (it will only try to attack the player). A helpful strategy used by a number of players is to lure a Protozoid Slimer close enough to another enemy for it to consume that enemy and save the player the task of defeating it - however, this strategy is often unreliable. Consuming an enemy doesn't affect the Protozoid Slimer in any way. Protozoid Slimers tend to congregate in mutated and alien areas, underwater, and in air vents. Upon the Protozoid Slimer's defeat, it will sometimes leave a toxic puddle on the ground, which inflicts a small amount of damage when it is stepped on without Protective Boots. Protozoid Slimer Egg The Protozoid Slimer Egg is stronger than the Protozoid Slimer itself, with 30 health (meaning 2 kicks or 4 pistol shots), but that's all. It cannot move, and it cannot attack. As soon as the player encounters it, though, it will begin to hatch and release a protozoid slimer (always 1 per Egg). If the player is quick enough, though, they can destroy the Egg before the Slimer is released (the weapons listed as "worst choice" are most often too slow to use before the Egg hatches, even though they are certainly effective). Shrinker is also a bad choice since the eggs are really weak and can be easily destroyed by kicking. The Protozoid Slimer Egg is vulnerable to any weapon. Since the eggs come in groups, explosive weapons are the most effective way of destroying at least a bunch of them before hatching. The Microwave Expander is very useful here. Once the Protozoid Slimer Egg has hatched, it does absolutely nothing. It can still be destroyed, though. An Egg will have the same amount of health after hatching as it did before - the hatching process doesn't affect it in any way. The threat of protozoid slimer Egg comes from the fact that they always come in groups, and are often guarded by another enemy (usually the Octabrain). It is unlikely the player will be able to destroy all the Eggs in an area before any of them hatch. Data Protozoid Slimer |} |valign=top| |} |valign=top| |} |} Protozoid Slimer Egg |} |valign=top| |} |} Trivia Image:ProtozoidSlimerBeta1.gif|An early Protozoid Slimer. * The Protozoid Slimer technically has a health of 1, but it is automatically killed when hit by any weapon. This includes the shrinker, which doesn't inflict any damage (therefore the Protozoid Slimer cannot be shrunk). The Protozoid Slimer is therefore the only enemy in the game that can be killed solely by the shrinker. ** The technical health of 1 is likely defined only to allow certain actions in the game, such as identifying it as a live enemy. The value isn't used as part of any damage calculations (as previously mentioned, the Protozoid Slimer is automatically killed when hit by any weapon). * A bug in the game that occurs when a protozoid slimer attempts to attack the player while the player is frozen makes all protozoid slimers in the level unable to attack the player from then on. The Protozoid Slimers will still attack other monsters, though. * A bug in the game causes the Protozoid Slimer to move towards the player's viewing position, not their physical position. The viewing position can be changed by looking at a security monitor - in which case, the Protozoid Slimer will effectively try to attack the security camera instead of Duke himself. * The Protozoid Slimer's appearance bears a striking resemblance to that of the slime covering some babes, namely the ones trapped in cocoons. ** The Sharks also have red eyes, on a color identical to the cocooned babes. This make possible that they are also hosts of the protozoid, with should explain their strange behavior when attacking Duke. * An early version of the Protozoid Slimer can be found in LameDuke. It cannot be killed. * The Protozoid Slimer shares a number of traits with the facehuggers from the Alien movies. They both hatch from eggs, and they both latch onto another creature's face. ** Also, the Protozoid Slimer Egg is similar to the eggs from the Alien movies, in terms of size, shape and which part of the egg is broken when it hatches. * Some believe that the Protozoid Slimer is the infant form of the octabrain. * In the 1.3d version of Duke Nukem 3D, the Protozoid Slimer is immune to the Mighty Foot. All other weapons affect it normally. * If a hatched protozoid slimer egg is frozen and allowed to thaw, it will return to its unhatched state and often immediately hatch to produce another protozoid slimer. This process can be repeated at infinite. Same thing will happen if you use the shrinker. * Even though the Protozoid Slimer can kill other enemies instantly and consume them, it will never instantly kill the player. This makes it more dangerous to other enemies than to the player. ** The Protozoid Slimer can consume the corpses of already dead enemies, regardless of how they were killed. * The Protozoid Slimer's ability to consume certain enemies can be useful in the "Damn I'm Good" skill level, as any corpses will revive after a while. * The Protozoid Slimer can be frozen like any other enemy while it is crawling around, but it is killed instantly instead of being frozen if it is attacking the player when shot with the Freezethrower. Category:DN3D Enemies Category:DN64 Enemies Category:DDC enemies Category:DNTM Enemies Category:DCLAB enemies